I know what is good.

Ask the Profussor – Ta-Ta Terrible Twos

This is it. The last Ask the Profussor as a two-year old. By the time the next edition rolls around, the FUSSYlittleBLOG will be three! Where has the time gone? I’ll tell you where it hasn’t gone, answering your questions in a timely manner.

You see, if I did even a passable job at that, the questions that fell through the cracks could be reasonably answered every three or four weeks in these periodic round-ups. But today is a continuation from last week’s AskTP post, because Mrs. Fussy couldn’t copyedit much beyond the 2,100 words mark. That’s usually a good sign I’ve gone on too long.

So here are the rest of those questions plus a few more that have accumulated over the course of the past seven days. And as always I’ll try to do better. After all, my commitment to you is that all questions, so long as they use proper punctuation, eventually get answered.

My favorite meal is a good roast chicken. So I’m going with chicken on this one too. But sadly, I’m not eating all the fatty bits around the carcass these days. Gone are the chicken skin on challah sandwiches. Officially, this is why taking a statin wouldn’t make me a lick healthier. I’d take it as carte blanche to eat my favorite foods again, and that can’t be healthy.

Only buy and eat meat that is raised without subtherapeutic doses of antibiotics. If you don’t know, ask. If you know, ask anyway. And if the server/clerk doesn’t know, ask them to check with the chef/butcher. If the answer is that they don’t know, skip the meat and order something less expensive (or leave).

Restaurants and grocery stores are on the front lines of food. It’s where battle lines are drawn. If enough people start asking, or turning away from animals fed routine antibiotics, we might start to see a change. Eventually the TV news will care, and then change will come (much like it did recently with “pink slime”).

I just tasted the homemade chocolate syrup last night. We still have some from that first batch and I detected no off flavors or hints of fermentation. I cannot vouch for its safety and your mileage may vary. But the short answer is, long enough (so far it’s been about four weeks).

Surely. Of course, I haven’t. But one of the moms at the nursery school has been talking it up to me for the past few months. It’s encouraging to see that the place is getting some more recognition than just her family’s devotion. Hopefully I’ll make it down there soon.

I’m guessing he’ll remain silent given your reaction. Actually, he’s often quiet in person and I cannot recall him ever commenting on an FLB post. But he reads the blog occasionally, and I do trust his taste (although we don’t always agree).

Ben & Jerry’s is local to Albany like Budweiser is local to Kansas City. They are not. They are part of giant global corporations. Stewart’s is different. Stewart’s is actually local. Although I’m not convinced of its place in the tour yet. I’ve still got some thinking to do.

I’m inclined to agree with you. This should be a celebration of the truly great, and not just the most beloved local institutions. Stewart’s ice cream is what it is. It’s a summertime staple. And if anyone truly believes they make “The World’s Best Vanilla” we apparently need to have a little sit-down conversation about marketing.

On the other hand, previous tours have indeed featured places that were included based on their standing as local institutions, not because of the quality of their product. I think back to Kurver Kreme (Tour de Soft Serve), Stewart’s (Tour de Egg and Cheese) and Bob & Ron’s (Tour de Fish Fry). Luckily I don’t expect the tour to happen until the second half of May, so I’ve got a little bit of time to figure it out.

In Albany, “ice cream” is synonymous with “soft serve,” for better or for worse. There are some upsides to soft serve, and we have plenty of data to show On The Farm’s proficiency at the form. That’s why they get the nod for Best Ice Cream in the Capital Region this year. Next year I fully suspect the nomination will go to the winner of the Tour de Hard Ice Cream.

Heavens no. And it should be said there are rare and occasional perks to being a top commenter on the FLB. So I hope you enjoy your moment in the sun. Officially you are neck and neck with Mr. Sunshine and jenh718, but still significantly behind KB@Home-Baked Happiness and irisira. Now don’t all y’all get complacent because WrigsMac is nipping at your heels.

From someone who has done all of the tours, this seems like a bad idea. But it has been suggested the tour should end at Moxie’s. And I think that might be wise. I suspect there will be six varieties of vanilla but Moxie’s plays it a bit close to the chest.

addiesdad has invinted me to play a game:
Semantics, eh? Perhaps the Profussor knows the answer to this question that has bugged for some time. What’s the difference between a bar, a tavern, a pub, a saloon, etc? I’m not talking in the modern sense, but in the historic sense.

Bar: No food, unless you count beer as food.
Tavern: It’s a bar with more food than simply beer and peanuts.
Pub: It’s like a tavern, just in England.
Saloon: A bar with a piano.
Cantina: A bar in Mexico.

Note: If any of these are right, it’s purely coincidental. I’m committed to answering questions. Answering questions correctly goes beyond the scope of my contract.

I cannot tell you what someone else is thinking. My guess is that their alleged actions feel less like cheating than the actual fraud of filling out ballots for people they don’t even know. Plus writing in other people’s names takes time. It’s best to let them fill it out themselves.

Thank you. I’m happier. The thing that’s actually making me truly happy is that I can walk again! It’s slow and weird. But it’s walking. I’m also happy that the whole sordid voting affair is over for another year. Time to move on to other cranky food pursuits.

It’s been a while since I’ve been in there. Maybe with the latest price hike they took down the telly. But it was hanging above the bar and had a clear line of sight into most seats in the dining room. For those outside of Albany, one of the great scourges of restaurants and bars out here is the presence of the boob tube. Maybe it’s time to start a short list of those establishments that allow you to enjoy your time there without video interference.

You know, I still eat meat. I just take the skin off my roast chicken breast before I eat it. I’ll eat only ½ a meatball and share the rest with my children. There was brisket for Passover, although I turned down a fatty piece of bark. But after reading your comment I went down to Capital Q for a South Carolina style pulled pork sandwich. It didn’t cure me, but it did make me feel great.

Like this:

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No rush Dan. I live in Glenmont. I have been to Romo’s. If you like puffy, chewy, fried dough-like crust coated in oil and garlic powder, this is the place for you. It’s reminiscent of chain-type pizza. And, I don’t like that. I don’t eat meat, so I can’t speak to the wings. If we HAVE to get takeout pizza from close by we get Angela’s. Not the best in my book either, but I would say better than Romo’s. But then again, that depends on your requirements for good pizza. I usually make my own totally homemade, down to the sauce, so I am fussy when I eat it out. As for V&R, was not impressed when I went there… uninspired is a nice way to put it. But, that was a while ago, maybe I should re-visit? Quite honestly, I don’t love any of the Italian restaurants around here.

I always thought Angela’s slices, eaten there hot from the oven were fantastic. They have that awesome crispy bottom crust, no soggy middle at all. My biggest peeve about pizza slices is that places usually don’t heat them up enough, that is not the case at Angela’s.

Chrystal, I definitely agree. I think that their pizza is definitely better eaten at Angela’s right out of the oven. Or, re-heated in the oven the next day if you get takeout. I guess, I was more comparing it to my own than anything else. Angela’s is definitely dependable. I had one of their grilled sandwiches the other night for the first time, it was pretty enjoyable. Definitely don’t like the squishy fried dough tasting crust at Romo’s.

Ice cream comes in two forms, but when I think “ice cream,” I think the hard stuff, the stuff that’s scooped onto cones or comes in pints or half-gallons. (Well, alright, less-than-half-gallons now, but that’s beside the point.) If I’m looking for soft-serve, I’d call it “soft-serve” before “ice cream.”

“Officially, this is why taking a statin wouldn’t make me a lick healthier. I’d take it as carte blanche to eat my favorite foods again, and that can’t be healthy.”

Your argument is specious, and akin to telling a diabetic to simply diet their way back to health (this was the case before the discovery of insulin in 1923 when despite their best efforts, children with diabetes simply slipped into a coma and eventually succumbed to the disease). Sometimes a nudge is required. The problem is one of high cholesterol, which if left unchecked over time could potentially develop into a number of cardiovascular problems. If the statin lowers your ‘bad’ cholesterol and raises your ‘good’ cholesterol numbers I fail to understand how this doesn’t make one healthier as it has effectively addressed a known trigger of cardiovascular woe. Will the statin stop you from getting fat, expelling gas or engaging in gluttony? Of course not, no more than it will replace a healthy, balanced diet and exercise.

Moderation in everything is the key to successful living. While no pill is a magic bullet, modern medicine has advanced sufficiently such that fatal diseases from a mere decade or two ago can now be effectively controlled.

If someone says “let’s go out for ice cream”, I assume they mean “soft serve” & a trip to the local “stand is in order”; If someone says “can you bring home ice cream?”, I assume they want a pint or half gallon of “hard serve” from the store. Hmmmm. Never really thought about that before…

I have also noted the lack of soft serve ice cream places in other parts of the country. Is this a Northeast thing?

I like the thought you put into this response. I agree with you on the implied meanings of “let’s go out…” vs. “can you bring…” “Let’s go out…” also implies that we will be eating our ice cream outside, probably leaning up against the car.

Profussor, thanks for the response. With all due respect, I must disagree. Ben & Jerry’s is made in a factory. Stewart’s is made in a factory. The ice cream you get from either one is made more than 50 but less than 200 miles from Albany. To call one local and not the other is just splitting hairs. Ben & Jerry’s is a corporation. Stewarts is a corporation. Ben & Jerry’s just happens to be part of a conglomerate called Unilever. The difference is B&J still has a commitment to Fair Trade and social responsibility where Stewart’s never had any such commitment. No FT chocolate there. Bigger isn’t necessarily worse. I wouldn’t compare B&J to Budweiser. Something more along the lines of Sam Adams or Saranac. Stewarts would be something like Genny Cream Ale, smaller and just worse. That said, there isn’t much difference between Stewarts and B&J corporatewise. Can you tell I don’t care for Stewart’s ice cream? Sorry, I feel strongly about this and feel the need to hammer it home.

As a locavore myself, I think Vermont is pretty darn local. Certainly closer to us than many a western NY town. It would be one thing if Ben & Jerry’s milk came from Belgium, or even California, but 100 miles vs. 50 miles isn’t really enough to qualify/disqualify IMO.

I don’t recall Cooper’s Cave really being known for their hard ice cream. They had a thousand soft serve flavors and that seemed to be what drew everyone in. That, and they put candy “eyes” on the baby cones. Also, if you get Cooper’s Cave, you have to drive a few miles away so the stench of the paper factory doesn’t detract from your ice cream (much how the smell of the Albany dump can ruin a shake at Kurver).

I know a lot of people who control their diabetes through diet alone. It’s a huge commitment but ultimately better because it’s a lifestyle change rather than throwing drugs into your system so you can continue to make bad choice.

*Note, I know not all diabetes can be controlled through diet alone but it’s a valid option for many.